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Girl Calls Out Hasbro on Gender Equality

One six-year old girl noticed something that didn’t seem quite fair while playing the game "Guess Who?" with her brothers. There was no foul play on the siblings’ behalf, but she thought Hasbro, the game’s creator, had some explaining to do.

One six-year old girl noticed something that didn’t seem quite fair while playing the game "Guess Who?" with her brothers. There was no foul play on the siblings’ behalf, but she thought Hasbro, the game’s creator, had some explaining to do.

The classic guessing game features 19 boys and 5 girls. That ratio did not sit well with the girl, so her mother, Jennifer O’Connell, helped her take action, reports Yahoo! Games.

My name is R______. I am six years old. I think it's not fair to only have 5 girls in Guess Who and 19 boys. It is not only boys who are important, girls are important too. If grown ups get into thinking that girls are not important they won't give little girls much care.

Also if girls want to be a girl in Guess Who they'll always lose against a boy, and it will be harder for them to win. I am cross about that and if you don't fix it soon, my mum could throw Guess Who out.

My mum typed this message but I told her what to say.

The company’s response made excuses and danced around the child’s complaint. "Guess Who? Is a guessing game based on numerical equation," they wrote, adding that the game "is not weighted in favor of any particular character, male or female."

O'Connell was not impressed with their answer or ability to talk to a child, so she reached out herself: "I must confess that, despite being 37 years of age and educated to Masters level, I am equally at a loss," she wrote. "Why is female gender regarded as a 'characteristic,’ while male gender is not?"

Finally, the toy company applauded their suggestion to add more female characters and noted they would take this into consideration for future versions. They also offered to send extra sheets for the game with equal numbers of girls and boys and decided to close by writing, "We hope your mum does not throw out your Guess Who game!"

Do you think Hasbro should change the characters to portray equal gender representation? Leave a comment.